Fairfax Media revealed last week MyMaster, an underground essay writing business being run out of Sydney, had reaped more than $160,000 from students studying in Australia this year alone.

The University of Newcastle and the University of Wollongong say they are investigating the use of the MyMaster service by their students.

Other universities have indicated they would look into the matter upon receiving evidence of misconduct.

The federal education department told a parliamentary hearing on Friday the issue had been referred to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), the independent regulator of Australia's universities.

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A spokeswoman for TEQSA said on Monday the authority had been asked to ensure all universities were "meeting the requirements of the Higher Education Threshold Standards that are relevant to this issue".

"Acting Chief Commissioner Nick Saunders is confident that in those cases where students have not produced original work, the institution will take appropriate action," she said.

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Fairfax Media will provide information to universities that would assist inquiries, including copies of completed assignments.

The deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Technology, Sydney, Professor Shirley Alexander, said the university had copies of every assignment submitted that could be cross-referenced with the essays bought from MyMaster.

"I can stand here with my hand on my heart and say we take a very, very dim view," she said. "If students are caught cheating they would get a zero for the assignment or the whole subject for a first offence and if they continue to cheat they get excluded from the university."

She said students had been expelled in the past for ongoing cheating.

"I caught someone on the weekend on another cheating site where they'd posted a UTS assignment," Professor Alexander said on Monday. "We investigated it yesterday and we'd discovered who the student was by lunchtime, so we do that kind of thing all the time.

The University of Wollongong also asked Fairfax Media for any information that might help trace cheaters.

"Once we are in receipt of the information, we will be able to determine the appropriate process for our internal investigation of this matter," deputy vice-chancellor Professor Eeva Leinonen said.

Macquarie University said it would examine whether there was evidence students had breached the university's academic honesty policies, while a spokeswoman for the University of NSW said it would "investigate any allegation it receives about student cheating, provided there is sufficient detail in the material to enable such investigations to be undertaken".

A fellow of the University of Sydney senate wrote to the vice-chancellor on Friday requesting a full report on the matter to be presented at the next senate meeting on December 1.

A spokeswoman for the university said it "would investigate any information that came to its attention about cheating at the university".